1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a peripheral device compatible to a network, an information processing apparatus for controlling the peripheral device, an information processing method, and a program thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, a service providing apparatus which provides service in response to a service request from a client device on a network, and a service providing system are known. Along with the dramatic popularization of communications via the Internet, many devices of types other than a conventional personal computer have been developed as network compatible devices. For example, network compatibility of user interactive devices such as a personal data assistant (PDA), portable phone, and the like, image processing devices such as a scanner, printer, copying machine, digital camera, and the like, and also various devices including electronic home appliances such as a television, air conditioner, refrigerator, and the like have rapidly advanced. Note that PDA is short for personal data assistant.
In order to improve convenience and to allow easy management using such network compatible devices, various protocols and architectures have been proposed (patent references 1 and 2). These proposals include search and retrieve means of network devices which provide services, automatic setup means of application software, utility software, an operating system, and the like required to control network devices, and the like.
In order to enhance and apply a plug-and-play function which has been applied to local I/O-connected devices to network devices, a plurality of corporations and standard-setting organizations have developed its specifications. For example, UPnP (TM: non-patent reference 1) the development of which has been mainly made by Microsoft Corporation, Inc. is known. Also, WSD: Web Services for Devices (WS-Discovery/WS-MetadataExchange: non-patent references 2 and 3) is known. Furthermore, Rendezvous supported by OS X developed by Apple Computer, Inc., and the like are available as examples of such. In addition, as for WSD, BMLinks basic specification Version 1.2 (Japan Business Machine and Information System Industries Association, Internet URL: http://www.jbmia.or.jp/bmlinks/index.htm) is known.    [Patent Reference 1] Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2004-038956    [Patent Reference 2] Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2004-362594    [Non-patent Reference 1] “UPnP(TM) Device    Architecture” version 1.0, Jun. 8, 2000, (Internet URL: http://www.upnp.org/download/UPnPDA10—20000613.htm)    [Non-patent Reference 2] “Web Service Dynamic Discovery (WS-Discovery)”, April 2005 (Internet URL: http://specs.xmlsoap.org/ws/2005/04/discovery/ws-discovery.pdf)    [Non-patent Reference 3] “WS-MetadataExchange”, September 2000, Microsoft Corporation, Inc., (Internet URL: http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en-us/dnglobspec/html/ws-metadataexchange.pdf)
In this way, the prevalence of the network plug-and-play (also called network PnP) function improves the convenience of users. However, whether or not a user can actually use a network device recognized by network plug-and-play cannot be determined.
In other words, the network plug-and-play function unwantedly installs a driver and application of a network device in a computer. A case will be examined below wherein the network plug-and-play function automatically installs the driver and application of a given network device in a computer, and that device is then disconnected from the network and can no longer be used from the computer. Even in that case, the user can select the driver and application of that device as the device driver or application to be used. For this reason, the user cannot recognize why he or she cannot use the network device.
For example, in some cases, the user moves a portable personal computer from home or a business office to an other office, a hot spot provided to public facilities, or the like, and temporarily accesses a different network environment. In this case, every time the plug-and-play function of portable personal computers discover a network device running in the network environment at the destination, it automatically installs a driver and application of that network device. That is, the portable personal computer is installed with the printer drivers to be ordinarily used, and those to be temporarily used. Even after the portable personal computer disjoins from the temporarily accessed network environment, the installed driver and application still remain in the portable personal computer. The driver and application of the device which can no longer be used remain in the portable personal computer, resulting in inconvenience in terms of use. The hardware resources and, especially, memory resources of the device and portable personal computer are wastefully used. Of course, this problem is posed for not only portable personal computers but also network devices with the network PnP function. That is, a printer driver which was installed after logging in of a temporary guest user must be uninstalled since it is not ordinarily used. On the other hand, a device driver which was installed after logging in of a user other than the guest user such as an administrator user may be frequently used. For this reason, if such a driver is uninstalled without careful consideration, it cannot be used at the right moment.